Refer to schedule for due dates
What is the EAC?
The EAC assignment asks you to use a range of sources to orchestrate a critical research conversation. In academic language, this kind of project is sometimes called a “literature review” in which scholars situate their own work among a host of voices: some that compete with their ideas, some that complement them, and some that do a little of both.
In less academic terms, you might think of the EAC assignment as resembling a talk show or conference panel where you have invited numerous guests to discuss a specific issue. You, in this case, are the moderator orchestrating the conversation and showing how the contributions of your guests dynamically relate.
It is your job to control the conversation, making sure there is a compelling arc, a compelling story. One task is to also make explicit the implicit relationships and connections between your panelists. As you work through the sources–each of which you will deal with in 1-3 paragraphs–you should gradually begin to make connections between them. Keeping the conversation connected will distinguish this essay from being a mere series of summaries connected by transitions.
In the RSA the concept of the “argumentative story” was very important; here, we will speak more of the “conversational story“–the critical story you tell with and through your sources. You might choose to organize so that a key source receives the weight of attention at any given time, or you might choose to move between sources more liberally as you let the certain key concepts or positions within the debate control the conversation. Either way, you’re telling a story.
Your position as a moderator here is crucial: you are not yet an “expert”–we’ll save that for your more mature engagements in undergraduate research–but you are more knowledgeable than your audience. It is your job to make this conversation lively and understandable for your readers by explaining difficult concepts.
What is the purpose?
This assignment allows you to accomplish a number of goals. Most importantly, you will:
- Describe the debate or conversation surrounding your particular research question by deploying skills in summary and analysis practiced earlier assignments.
- Establish the ethos or credibility of each participant in your conversation. Your audience should never have to ask: “why is this source here?” or “who is this?”
- Learn about an engaging conversation in a specific field that interests you.
- Introduce a research question to you readers, underscoring its significance.
- Define the relationship between your sources in complex ways (moving beyond compare-and-contrast, or agree-and-disagree)
- Begin to voice your own emerging point of view via engagement and analysis of your sources as you work alongside, and beyond, your sources
- Understand the key practices (related to citation, knowledge creation, disciplinarity, style, and so on) related to the academic discourse and academic genres that you will examine.
And the details?
We will discuss successful structures and strategies for this essay in the weeks ahead, and separate assignment sheets will present crucial building blocks such as the Research Progress Report. For now, you just need to know that your paper should be between 1500-2000 words, and that it should deal closely with 3 peer-reviewed sources and 1-2 additional sources (web-based, non-peer-reviewed, historical, etc.) to “frame” the paper by way of introduction and conclusion.
Note: informational sources–such as encyclopedias and wikipedia–are a good place to start as you inform yourself about a given topic, but they should be used only to direct you towards more complete and thorough sources surrounding your topic. The body of your EAC paper should focus on the three required scholarly sources, but you are also free to use non-scholarly sources from popular or mainstream media to frame the conversation in your intro and conclusion.